4 February
So over the last couple of days people have been saying some great stuff to me. Here are some clips.
While eating lunch. Enter two girls wearing some nice dresses. One of the guys I'm eating with says to me (in English): “Ah, yes. The African girls. You are wanting to send one home?”
In a tchouck stand (think grass hut with people drinking beer-ish stuff [tchouck] out of half-cocoanuts [calabashes]) Monsieur Walla, as he told me to call him, and I are discussing life in general. After a long conversation and two calabashes of tchouck he concludes with: “Les belles femmes sont tres dangereus”
And last but far from least. This one goes out to Dave, Eric, and those Canadian kids we met in Prague.
Guy: “Tu viens de où?”
me: “America”
guy: “you are coming from America?”
me: “yes”
guy: “you are an American man?”
me: “yes”
guy: “you are coming from Washington?”
me: “no”
guy: “Chicago?”
me: “no”
guy: “Los Angeles?”
me: “no”
guy: “Canada?”
Yep... America's hat.
Monday, 9 February 2009
Et le travail?
Written 1 February
Last week was my best week at post to-date. I was busy every day and now I have three different project ideas.
The first project idea came about after talking to a guy who stopped by my house. He has worked with Peace Corps volunteers in the past and wanted to meet me and see if he could help with any projects I wanted to do. But through talking with him I realized that I have no idea what kinds of problems the girls of Tchamba actually face. I went to the highschool a few weeks back and asked for the enrollment breakdown: how many girls/guys are in each class. I found out that only 14% of the highschool students are girls and there are only 11 in their final year out of 91 total.
So my idea (well, I can hardly call it my idea because it's nothing new) is to start a girls' club. I figure I would invite some or all (haven't decided yet) of the girls enrolled in highschool to come hang out for a bit one day a week. We can play games, or they can bring homework, maybe I could teach a life skills lesson or two. I'll just ask them “hey, what do you you wanna do for the afternoon?” But through this club I can get to know them individually and start to ask questions that get at why there are only 11 girls about to graduate. After the problems are diagnosed, I can then start to take the necessary steps to alleviate said problems. Then, I took it a step further. Maybe in a year or two I can get the girls from my club to go back to whatever elementary school they attended and start their own girls' club as kind of a role model. This may not end up working out anything like this, but it's a spark, and it's exactly what I needed to get some stuff started.
Also, Emily, who lives in Wasarabo about 35 kilometers away, and I were talking about doing a project together. We both want to get some kids to paint a world map on the side of a building. The way it works is you take a map of the world printed on graph paper, and transfer each square individually onto a much bigger graph on a wall. And there are a ton of ways to spin it: I could illustrate the math behind it: longitude, latitude, the difference in scale between the paper, the wall, and the actual planet; or I could talk about the different geographical regions meteorologically or politically or whatever. Anyway, Emily and I figured we'd buy a bunch of paint together and I'd visit her village to help her get this project off the ground, and then she'd visit here and we'd do the same, learning from our mistakes the first time around.
And this last project idea is not my idea at all, but it's the one I'm the most excited about. Last week I met a guy at the internet cafe, and then earlier this week, he called me and invited me over his house. He said that he talked about this with a previous volunteer, but his service ended before they could get it off the ground. This guy, Kougbada, is a teacher at an elementary school. He wants to start a computer lab. He has a room, kind of like a shed in his compound but with an external door. He wants to try to get 10 computers to get students to learn how to use them. What he doesn't know is where to get funding or where to buy them and the technical stuff like that, which is what I can help him with. I figured if we get a computer lab up and running within a year, I can spend a second year teaching a computer literacy course. Stuff like how to type, how to use a word processor (bold, italics, indenting, fonts and sizes, etc...), how to do a google search or if I'm feeling really ambitious how to use stuff like excel. I know some other volunteers who have done computer literacy courses and they said you have to start at the beginning. The very beginning. Things like how to double click, what a folder is, what “delete” means.
Kougbada is a really intelligent guy. He invited me back to his house for lunch to which I went earlier this afternoon. He speaks really good English, and our conversation was about the American credit crisis and how much change I thought Obama is really going to bring. And stuff like how the grammar structure of English is Germanic but the vocabulary is very Latin-based. It was really nice to not only be able to speak English past “How are you? I am going to the market.” but to be intellectually stimulated and challenged. Hell, even if this computer lab thing falls through, at least I have a guy I can hang out with and talk about some stuff I normally can't talk about.
On a completely different note, I've been feeling great. I'm not sick or losing a ton of weight or anything like that. Although, my left big-toe nail has turned black for some reason... Meh... C'est comme ca.
Last week was my best week at post to-date. I was busy every day and now I have three different project ideas.
The first project idea came about after talking to a guy who stopped by my house. He has worked with Peace Corps volunteers in the past and wanted to meet me and see if he could help with any projects I wanted to do. But through talking with him I realized that I have no idea what kinds of problems the girls of Tchamba actually face. I went to the highschool a few weeks back and asked for the enrollment breakdown: how many girls/guys are in each class. I found out that only 14% of the highschool students are girls and there are only 11 in their final year out of 91 total.
So my idea (well, I can hardly call it my idea because it's nothing new) is to start a girls' club. I figure I would invite some or all (haven't decided yet) of the girls enrolled in highschool to come hang out for a bit one day a week. We can play games, or they can bring homework, maybe I could teach a life skills lesson or two. I'll just ask them “hey, what do you you wanna do for the afternoon?” But through this club I can get to know them individually and start to ask questions that get at why there are only 11 girls about to graduate. After the problems are diagnosed, I can then start to take the necessary steps to alleviate said problems. Then, I took it a step further. Maybe in a year or two I can get the girls from my club to go back to whatever elementary school they attended and start their own girls' club as kind of a role model. This may not end up working out anything like this, but it's a spark, and it's exactly what I needed to get some stuff started.
Also, Emily, who lives in Wasarabo about 35 kilometers away, and I were talking about doing a project together. We both want to get some kids to paint a world map on the side of a building. The way it works is you take a map of the world printed on graph paper, and transfer each square individually onto a much bigger graph on a wall. And there are a ton of ways to spin it: I could illustrate the math behind it: longitude, latitude, the difference in scale between the paper, the wall, and the actual planet; or I could talk about the different geographical regions meteorologically or politically or whatever. Anyway, Emily and I figured we'd buy a bunch of paint together and I'd visit her village to help her get this project off the ground, and then she'd visit here and we'd do the same, learning from our mistakes the first time around.
And this last project idea is not my idea at all, but it's the one I'm the most excited about. Last week I met a guy at the internet cafe, and then earlier this week, he called me and invited me over his house. He said that he talked about this with a previous volunteer, but his service ended before they could get it off the ground. This guy, Kougbada, is a teacher at an elementary school. He wants to start a computer lab. He has a room, kind of like a shed in his compound but with an external door. He wants to try to get 10 computers to get students to learn how to use them. What he doesn't know is where to get funding or where to buy them and the technical stuff like that, which is what I can help him with. I figured if we get a computer lab up and running within a year, I can spend a second year teaching a computer literacy course. Stuff like how to type, how to use a word processor (bold, italics, indenting, fonts and sizes, etc...), how to do a google search or if I'm feeling really ambitious how to use stuff like excel. I know some other volunteers who have done computer literacy courses and they said you have to start at the beginning. The very beginning. Things like how to double click, what a folder is, what “delete” means.
Kougbada is a really intelligent guy. He invited me back to his house for lunch to which I went earlier this afternoon. He speaks really good English, and our conversation was about the American credit crisis and how much change I thought Obama is really going to bring. And stuff like how the grammar structure of English is Germanic but the vocabulary is very Latin-based. It was really nice to not only be able to speak English past “How are you? I am going to the market.” but to be intellectually stimulated and challenged. Hell, even if this computer lab thing falls through, at least I have a guy I can hang out with and talk about some stuff I normally can't talk about.
On a completely different note, I've been feeling great. I'm not sick or losing a ton of weight or anything like that. Although, my left big-toe nail has turned black for some reason... Meh... C'est comme ca.
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
a cat, a disease, and 130 girls...
So i woke up one morning with a scrape on my forehead. I thought it was weird because i didnt remember falling or hidding my head on anything the night before, but oh well. it took a long time to heal and when it scabbed over, it was kind of yellow and crusty. Then a few days later i had another one on my chin and a day after that i had a big one on my cheek. they were all crusting over with this yellow junk, like something you'd find oozing out of your eye after getting pink eye. gross. so i called the med unit and Paula told me i had impetigo. she told me the name of an antibiotic, so i rode my bike over the the hospital and bought 40 pills for the equivilent of about a buck fifty. The gross sores went away after a few days and i look normal again. well, as normal as i've ever looked.
Also, there are now two of us living in my house. i got a little kitty. he is so cute: mostly white with a brown patch on his head and back, and he has three black stripes at the end of his tail. i named him Milo, and i informed him that it is his duty to catch any and all mice that come into the house, also, if he feels like eating a spider or cricket along the way, i wont mind at all.
And here is a story from yesterday morning. So my homologue has been MIA for the last couple of weeks. so i went to his house and told him i was bored and needed something to do, could i go do something with him. he said that he was going into Sokodé tomorrow and he will not be back for a week. he said that he had meetings to attend with the NGO that he works for, PLAN. i asked if i could go to one of his meetings and he said that i wouldnt be interested and that it would be just a bunch of other NGOs talking about boring stuff.
So i decided, fine, i need something to do this week, i cant just sit around and do nothing. so the next morning i went to a school and asked to meet the director (think principal). I chatted with a math teacher for a bit and he told me that the director wasnt in, that i should come back tomorrow morning.
so, yesterday morning, i returned to the school and introduced myself to the director. i told him that i work for the Peace Corps and i told him about the GEE program. he must have had stuff to do, because he directed me to talk to the woman standing next to him. she is the french teacher at the school. so i had the same conversation with her: name, Peace Corps, GEE, etc. She asked me if i wanted to talk to the girls, i said "sure" not fully understanding the question. so she told me to sit in this chair, and that she would be back. i waited in the room for about 10 or 15 minutes while the director and a few of the teachers had what looked like a daily meeting, going over paperwork and stuff. after a bit, the french teacher came back in and said "follow me". so i followed her across campus into another room empty, aside from 30 desks (i counted, 5 rows back, 6 columns across). i didnt really know what was about to happen, but all of a sudden a bunch of girls started coming through the door.
They filed in and started sitting three to a desk, and after the desks filled (5 rows, 6 columns, 3 girls each...90), they started lining up against the back wall (i counted 2, 4, 6... 40-- that's 130, every girl in the school). after everyone was in the room, the teacher turned to me and said "ok, what do you have to tell them?" oh, geeze, i thought, i started to panic. but then i collected myself and started to introduce myself. i said my name, that i worked with the Peace Corps and i started to tell them about the GEE program. When i finished my little soliloquy, i was somewhat proud of myself. yeah, that's right, i just said all of that in French. i had just enough time to reflect before the room erupted in laughter.
i looked at the French teacher, somewhat confused. She had a "dont worry about it" expression on her face and turned to the class and started to say exactly what i had just said. it took me until about half way through listening to my own impromptu speach before i figured it out. The french teacher was translating from an American trying to speak bad African French, to an African speaking good African French. after she finished the class was much more receptive and she turned to me and asked if i had anyting else to say. I told them that if they had any problems, or if they wanted to start a club or activity, to come talk to me. i live over in the Medina section of town, just ask where the Anasara (white guy) lives, and someone will show you to my house. they liked that little joke, and this time they were laughing with me instead of at me.
So the teacher dismissed them all back to their respective classrooms, and walked with me back to the director. This is actually when i found out she taught french, and i promptly apologized for slaughtering the language. When we got back, we met with the director, and i told him if he wanted me to help out with anything at the school, just let me know. i left them with a phone number and a hand shake, and rode my bike home pretty proud of myself.
on a completely different note, because i've had very little to do, i have been reading a lot. i'm about 150 pages into Obama's "Dreams from my father" and so far i think that im well on my way to becoming the president of the United States of America. let's see, i will be 35 in 2020 and i think that's an election year. i guess i should start campaigning as soon as i get back :-)
Also, there are now two of us living in my house. i got a little kitty. he is so cute: mostly white with a brown patch on his head and back, and he has three black stripes at the end of his tail. i named him Milo, and i informed him that it is his duty to catch any and all mice that come into the house, also, if he feels like eating a spider or cricket along the way, i wont mind at all.
And here is a story from yesterday morning. So my homologue has been MIA for the last couple of weeks. so i went to his house and told him i was bored and needed something to do, could i go do something with him. he said that he was going into Sokodé tomorrow and he will not be back for a week. he said that he had meetings to attend with the NGO that he works for, PLAN. i asked if i could go to one of his meetings and he said that i wouldnt be interested and that it would be just a bunch of other NGOs talking about boring stuff.
So i decided, fine, i need something to do this week, i cant just sit around and do nothing. so the next morning i went to a school and asked to meet the director (think principal). I chatted with a math teacher for a bit and he told me that the director wasnt in, that i should come back tomorrow morning.
so, yesterday morning, i returned to the school and introduced myself to the director. i told him that i work for the Peace Corps and i told him about the GEE program. he must have had stuff to do, because he directed me to talk to the woman standing next to him. she is the french teacher at the school. so i had the same conversation with her: name, Peace Corps, GEE, etc. She asked me if i wanted to talk to the girls, i said "sure" not fully understanding the question. so she told me to sit in this chair, and that she would be back. i waited in the room for about 10 or 15 minutes while the director and a few of the teachers had what looked like a daily meeting, going over paperwork and stuff. after a bit, the french teacher came back in and said "follow me". so i followed her across campus into another room empty, aside from 30 desks (i counted, 5 rows back, 6 columns across). i didnt really know what was about to happen, but all of a sudden a bunch of girls started coming through the door.
They filed in and started sitting three to a desk, and after the desks filled (5 rows, 6 columns, 3 girls each...90), they started lining up against the back wall (i counted 2, 4, 6... 40-- that's 130, every girl in the school). after everyone was in the room, the teacher turned to me and said "ok, what do you have to tell them?" oh, geeze, i thought, i started to panic. but then i collected myself and started to introduce myself. i said my name, that i worked with the Peace Corps and i started to tell them about the GEE program. When i finished my little soliloquy, i was somewhat proud of myself. yeah, that's right, i just said all of that in French. i had just enough time to reflect before the room erupted in laughter.
i looked at the French teacher, somewhat confused. She had a "dont worry about it" expression on her face and turned to the class and started to say exactly what i had just said. it took me until about half way through listening to my own impromptu speach before i figured it out. The french teacher was translating from an American trying to speak bad African French, to an African speaking good African French. after she finished the class was much more receptive and she turned to me and asked if i had anyting else to say. I told them that if they had any problems, or if they wanted to start a club or activity, to come talk to me. i live over in the Medina section of town, just ask where the Anasara (white guy) lives, and someone will show you to my house. they liked that little joke, and this time they were laughing with me instead of at me.
So the teacher dismissed them all back to their respective classrooms, and walked with me back to the director. This is actually when i found out she taught french, and i promptly apologized for slaughtering the language. When we got back, we met with the director, and i told him if he wanted me to help out with anything at the school, just let me know. i left them with a phone number and a hand shake, and rode my bike home pretty proud of myself.
on a completely different note, because i've had very little to do, i have been reading a lot. i'm about 150 pages into Obama's "Dreams from my father" and so far i think that im well on my way to becoming the president of the United States of America. let's see, i will be 35 in 2020 and i think that's an election year. i guess i should start campaigning as soon as i get back :-)
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
i want to update my blog, but i want to put a ton on energy into it and i dont have the time to right now. AND the internet in tchamba stopped working indefinitely, so i dont know when the next time i will be able to use the internet will be. but im keeping a list of things i want to include and when i get around to it? i will edit this post and replace it with all of the wonderful things i have to say about Togo. until then.
oh also, i want to see how many cities in Togo i can update my blog from. so far i have Kpalimé, Lomé, Tchamba, and right now im in Sokodé. thats 4 cities in 3 regions, hopefully i will be able to hit all 5 regions.
oh also, i want to see how many cities in Togo i can update my blog from. so far i have Kpalimé, Lomé, Tchamba, and right now im in Sokodé. thats 4 cities in 3 regions, hopefully i will be able to hit all 5 regions.
Monday, 15 December 2008
always, sometimes, never
so to help give you a sense of what a slice of life is like in this place, i've compiled a list of things that i see every day, once a week, and things i've yet to see in Togo.
everyday:
- somebody peeing (male of female)
- a naked kid
- a child bathing from a bucket, usually with assistance from at least one other person. family member? who knows.
- somebody breastfeeding
- an entire family on a moto (i've seen as many as 5 people)
- a child - who in the united states would not be trusted with a pair of scissors - with a machete
- somebody carrying something that would otherwise be transported in the back of a pickup truck on their head. including but not limited to: a mattress, a chainsaw, a bench, a large bag (100 pounds) of charcoal
weekly
- somebody pooping (usually only men)
- many goats strapped to the roofrack of a bush taxi
- three or more people on a bike
- rocks in my food
- somebody come within inches of an accident, usually involving a car, moto, bike, or all three
- an todler with an infant strapped to her (always her) back
- a child walking down the middle of the street crying as hard as s/he can with no adults in sight
things i've never seen
- someone wearing a seatbelt
- a working speedometer
- someone with a bike helmet... actually anything safety related
- a dog on a leash
- a trashcan (everything is literally just thrown on the ground)
i can tell that my time here is going to be an eternity within a heartbeat - bigger on the inside than it is on the outside (see Danielwski 2002). Every day here i am going to think things like "it's only noon?! ive been up for hours and hours" or "that happened this morning? i thought that was last week". but at the same time i know i will sometimes thing "oh geeze, it's march already" or "wow. i COS next week. where did the last two years go?". time on a small scale is giong to drag along, but time on a larger scale is going to fly by. i am giong to try to appreciate every second spent here, no matter how lonely, painful, or boring it may be because i know one day i will miss it. it reminds me of the inscription on the clock in the court at King's "days can be long, but life can be short..."
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
every new begining comes from some other begining's end
...and I am officially done with Peace Corps training. Here I am in Lomé, tomorrow i will be swearing-in and i will be an official PCV. Training was great, but at the same time i am kind of sad to be leaving. my host family was so welcoming and i am really going to miss my host brother François. But i will be nice to live on my own and cook my own food and go wherever i want without having to explain what i'm doing in broken french.
so according to the language evaluations i am no better at french than when i got off the plane. but i know this is not true because i can express myself way better than when i first met my host family. This can only mean that the way in which they measure our progress is flawed in some way.
so much has happened since the last time i was around a computer. first of all, a new restaurant opened up in our training village. a few of us went to the grand opening. they had people dancing and lip-synching and stuff like that. then out of no where they asked all of the peace corps people to come up on stage. they thanked us and said that they appreciated the work that we are doing for Togo and stuff. Before we knew it, we were naming the new restaurant. "Obamania". for real. The guy is not even president yet and they're already naming restraunts after him... in OTHER countries. There is one little caveat to this story though. we didnt just pick this name out of thin air. they gave us two choices and we got to vote on which one we liked better. our choices were the one we picked, or just "Obama"... I think we made the right decision.
Also, since post visit training has been really relaxed. we've done stuff like "soy transformation" which is making tofu from soy beans. we did everything- soaked them, took them to the miller to be milled, boiled the stuff, skimmed stuff off of the top, strained it.... it's a much more complicated process than i thought. we also learned how to make soap and lotion. the purpose of learning this stuff is so we can teach our villagers and they can use this as an income generating activity. so if a girl doesnt have the money to pay for school, during breaks and stuff she can make lotion and sell it at the market.
we also went on a field trip up to the Kara region of Togo. it was a three day trip and we stopped at various places along the way to see some of the projects that previous volunteers have started. we also visited a few NGOs and got to ask them about their work and stuff. It was a great trip, but honestly the best part was kickin out the jams on my ipod and cruising down the route nationale. on top of that, we got to sleep on some real mattresses that were more than a few inches thick and we could actually take hot showers!
i think about everyone all the time, so many things happen here that reminds me of someone at home. i seriously think about you guys many times a day... here are some "for instance"s off the top of my head.
Rich and Sean- you guys have never seen a game of Hoop-n-Stick played until you've seen a togolese kid play. They are amazing at it. although they don't play the colonial version of a wooden hoop, they play the post industrial version which includes a moto tire. i've seen kids sprint up a bumpy hill and make a 90 degree turn to cross a little bridge less than a foot wide over a ditch on the side of the road and through a shop door.... what!?
Nolan- dude, british english makes so much more sense if you look at it from the perspective of french. things like the word torch (the french word for flashlight is torche) and the word queue, and all of those extra "u"s stuck all over the place like colour or flavour. there are many more examples but i just cant think of them right now.
Nicole- you'll never guess what grows all over the place down here. mimosa. i blew everyone's mind (a bit of an over statement) when i touched the leaves and made it close up. the next time i find one around, i'm going to put it in a pot and keep it in my house and raise it in the memory of the one you bought me...rest in peace.
my next post will be from Tchamba. thank you all for commenting on this thing, i love knowing that youre reading this. also, thank you to EVERYONE who has sent me mail. i'm many weeks behind, so the stuff you sent many weeks ago, i should be getting soon. thank you all for your support. i'm out.
so according to the language evaluations i am no better at french than when i got off the plane. but i know this is not true because i can express myself way better than when i first met my host family. This can only mean that the way in which they measure our progress is flawed in some way.
so much has happened since the last time i was around a computer. first of all, a new restaurant opened up in our training village. a few of us went to the grand opening. they had people dancing and lip-synching and stuff like that. then out of no where they asked all of the peace corps people to come up on stage. they thanked us and said that they appreciated the work that we are doing for Togo and stuff. Before we knew it, we were naming the new restaurant. "Obamania". for real. The guy is not even president yet and they're already naming restraunts after him... in OTHER countries. There is one little caveat to this story though. we didnt just pick this name out of thin air. they gave us two choices and we got to vote on which one we liked better. our choices were the one we picked, or just "Obama"... I think we made the right decision.
Also, since post visit training has been really relaxed. we've done stuff like "soy transformation" which is making tofu from soy beans. we did everything- soaked them, took them to the miller to be milled, boiled the stuff, skimmed stuff off of the top, strained it.... it's a much more complicated process than i thought. we also learned how to make soap and lotion. the purpose of learning this stuff is so we can teach our villagers and they can use this as an income generating activity. so if a girl doesnt have the money to pay for school, during breaks and stuff she can make lotion and sell it at the market.
we also went on a field trip up to the Kara region of Togo. it was a three day trip and we stopped at various places along the way to see some of the projects that previous volunteers have started. we also visited a few NGOs and got to ask them about their work and stuff. It was a great trip, but honestly the best part was kickin out the jams on my ipod and cruising down the route nationale. on top of that, we got to sleep on some real mattresses that were more than a few inches thick and we could actually take hot showers!
i think about everyone all the time, so many things happen here that reminds me of someone at home. i seriously think about you guys many times a day... here are some "for instance"s off the top of my head.
Rich and Sean- you guys have never seen a game of Hoop-n-Stick played until you've seen a togolese kid play. They are amazing at it. although they don't play the colonial version of a wooden hoop, they play the post industrial version which includes a moto tire. i've seen kids sprint up a bumpy hill and make a 90 degree turn to cross a little bridge less than a foot wide over a ditch on the side of the road and through a shop door.... what!?
Nolan- dude, british english makes so much more sense if you look at it from the perspective of french. things like the word torch (the french word for flashlight is torche) and the word queue, and all of those extra "u"s stuck all over the place like colour or flavour. there are many more examples but i just cant think of them right now.
Nicole- you'll never guess what grows all over the place down here. mimosa. i blew everyone's mind (a bit of an over statement) when i touched the leaves and made it close up. the next time i find one around, i'm going to put it in a pot and keep it in my house and raise it in the memory of the one you bought me...rest in peace.
my next post will be from Tchamba. thank you all for commenting on this thing, i love knowing that youre reading this. also, thank you to EVERYONE who has sent me mail. i'm many weeks behind, so the stuff you sent many weeks ago, i should be getting soon. thank you all for your support. i'm out.
Monday, 3 November 2008
Bienvenue a Tchamba
Yesterday was my first day at my post. This week is post visit. Tami, who is the volunteer i am replacing, just left this morning. Now the only two white people in the city are me and Heather who is a CHAP (community health and aids prevention) volunteer.
my opinion of this place? awesome. i am very happy with this small city. my house is georgous and i have a little court yard and a front porch and stuff. i have a huge living room, a huge bedroom, a huge bedroom with a proper shower and a flush toilet, i even have a guest bedroom. how friggen sweet is that? i cannot wait to have visitors, whether they are from the US or from other villages.
Affo is the name of my homologue. his role is to help me get stuff done. if i want to start a club or something, i talk to my boy Affo and he helps sort me out. yesterday he took me all around the city to meet different people such as the gendarmes, the police, the chief etc. This morning, before tami left, she took me to the big school (seriously, its huge) and introduced me to some important people. word is going around the village that i am replacing tami and that she is skipping town back to the US.
i am so friggen excited to start my service. at the end of this week i have to get myself back to the training village, Agou, which is about 4 or 5 hours away for the last 5 weeks of training. honestly, i dont want to. i want to stay here and start making friends around the village and hang out in the bar and go to the school and talk to the kids and chill in my belle maison.
i will take pictures of my house and around town and maybe they will make it to the internet. but it is extremely slow and they may never make it onto the internet. the internet cafe i am in right now is about a 5 minute walk from my house and its pretty cheap, so i will definitely have regular internet access.
also, i talked to nicole on the phone yesterday and she has not recieved the letter that i sent a while ago, nor any letter since then. ive written many letters since ive been here and one might be on its way to you, just be patient. yesterday i got a letter from sarah which she sent on september 9th.
i cant tell myself this enough: this is going to be a 27 month lesson in patience.
also:
"In the Harry Potter universe this is the hometown of the Quidditch team the Tchamba Charmers" -wikipedia... really?
and you can bet that i will be all over this wiki page by the time i leave...
my opinion of this place? awesome. i am very happy with this small city. my house is georgous and i have a little court yard and a front porch and stuff. i have a huge living room, a huge bedroom, a huge bedroom with a proper shower and a flush toilet, i even have a guest bedroom. how friggen sweet is that? i cannot wait to have visitors, whether they are from the US or from other villages.
Affo is the name of my homologue. his role is to help me get stuff done. if i want to start a club or something, i talk to my boy Affo and he helps sort me out. yesterday he took me all around the city to meet different people such as the gendarmes, the police, the chief etc. This morning, before tami left, she took me to the big school (seriously, its huge) and introduced me to some important people. word is going around the village that i am replacing tami and that she is skipping town back to the US.
i am so friggen excited to start my service. at the end of this week i have to get myself back to the training village, Agou, which is about 4 or 5 hours away for the last 5 weeks of training. honestly, i dont want to. i want to stay here and start making friends around the village and hang out in the bar and go to the school and talk to the kids and chill in my belle maison.
i will take pictures of my house and around town and maybe they will make it to the internet. but it is extremely slow and they may never make it onto the internet. the internet cafe i am in right now is about a 5 minute walk from my house and its pretty cheap, so i will definitely have regular internet access.
also, i talked to nicole on the phone yesterday and she has not recieved the letter that i sent a while ago, nor any letter since then. ive written many letters since ive been here and one might be on its way to you, just be patient. yesterday i got a letter from sarah which she sent on september 9th.
i cant tell myself this enough: this is going to be a 27 month lesson in patience.
also:
"In the Harry Potter universe this is the hometown of the Quidditch team the Tchamba Charmers" -wikipedia... really?
and you can bet that i will be all over this wiki page by the time i leave...
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